Lucky
by etraytin
Summary: Long hours at the White House can put stress on a relationship. A missed anniversary can make or break one. Josh and Donna struggle to avoid repeating the mistakes of others.


Author's Note: Yet another Tumblr prompt fic! I was going to hold off on posting this one, but I figured I might owe the readers some fluff after Ourselves and Immortality. The prompt for this one is from an anonymous reader, and this time it's at the bottom of the fic.

…...

By the time Donna walked into the townhouse that night, the candles had been extinguished and all the food long-since put away. She could still smell the faint memory of both in the air, but the living room and kitchen were dark, and only the faint flicker of the television shone through the door to the bedroom. She quickly hung up her coat and kicked off her shoes, then hurried into the bedroom. Josh was propped up in the bed, the same position he always was when he fell asleep watching television. "Mmm, timezit?" he mumbled as she walked in.

"Almost two," she told him ruefully. "I'm so sorry."

"Meant to stay up." He yawned and scratched his chest, sitting up in the bed to watch as she stripped off skirt and hose with the efficiency of exhaustion. "Long day?"

"The longest," she confirmed. "Everything was going great till about six pm, all the first ladies were happy, everyone was getting along most of the time, nobody was fighting over the bedroom assignments or the canapes. I had one foot out the door when suddenly two of these women are shrieking at each other over who might have slept with whose husband at a summit meeting five years ago. I swear to god, wives of some of the most powerful men in the world, and suddenly they're pulling hair and scratching like it's the parking lot behind the high school. The Secret Service took Mrs. Santos right out, so I was left trying to sort the whole thing out without causing my first diplomatic incident of this administration. It was wild. By the time we got everything sorted out and everyone settled down, medicated, appropriately soothed and back with their respective world leaders, it was after midnight, and then Helen made me sit down with the damn doctor before I could even debrief my staff."

"The doctor?" Josh squinted as Donna flipped on the bathroom light to begin taking off her makeup. When his eyes adjusted, he could make out a pattern of light blue bruises running down her arm, and what looked like a scratch just above her jawline. He was out of bed in an instant. "Jesus, Donna, what did they do to you?" His hands were careful but almost frantic as he looked her over, checking for more hurts.

She put a soapy hand on his face, trying to calm him down. "It's more what I did to myself," she told him. "I was wading in to try and keep them from killing each other, caught a stray elbow and tripped over the coffee table. Very graceful." She caught his chin with her fingers and made him look at her face. "I'm really okay," she repeated.

He subsided, almost grudgingly, but kept his hands lightly on her shoulders. "They should be giving you hazard pay for that job. I've never had to break up a fistfight in the Oval." She raised her eyebrows at him, earning her a sheepish grin. "May have almost caused a couple," he admitted.

"It was a first," she agreed. "But I'm still really sorry. I should've called, at least. I completely lost track of the time, and I know you worked really hard to get tonight off and set everything up." She ducked her head. "I really wanted this anniversary to be special, and I ruined it."

"Hey now." This time it was Josh's turn to lift Donna's face to his, letting her see his smile. "Man of occasion, remember? We have other anniversaries we can celebrate."

"I just... these jobs take so much out of us," she told him earnestly, taking hold of his upper arms. "Sometimes I feel like I can barely catch my breath, let alone have quality time at home. You're so important, this is so important, and I'm afraid I'm messing it up. I don't want us to end up like Leo and Jenny, Josh. I don't want you to think-"

He silenced her with a kiss, threading his fingers through her tousled hair and running the other hand over the knotted muscles in her back. She relaxed into him, closing her eyes with a soft "mmm" noise and let the day flow away for a few moments. She was passing relaxed and heading towards noodle when he pulled away and spoke. "Do you think that I, of all people, wouldn't understand you needing to work tonight? I called Jacelyn and got an update, and that's all I needed."

Donna snuggled into his chest, resting her head against his shoulder. "You make me feel very lucky," she told him.

He grinned, and even though she couldn't quite see it, she could feel it in the muscles of his jaw. "Don't feel too lucky, I'm storing up points against the next time I do something stupid. It's like having a freebie."

She laughed. "I guess it's only fair. Good thing this was only our December anniversary. We've got another one coming up in February."

"And April," he reminded her cheerfully. She gave him a look and he raised his hands. "You're so lucky, remember?"

She snorted and wiped the last of her makeup from her face. "Funny guy. You're lucky I love you."

He slipped his hand into hers and led her towards the bedroom. "Yep," he agreed.

…...

Prompt: Anonymous asked: "can you write a story set like, a year into the santos administration with josh or donna being afraid they are going to have relationship problems bc of work like leo had with jenny? and then of course the other reassuring whichever one is worried?"


End file.
